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From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Governor Nasir El-Rufai has clarified that the Northern States Governors’ Forum did not oppose the presidency going to the south in 2023, rather it was against the language used in the resolution of the Southern Governors on the issue of power shift.
He said northern governors were alarmed that their southern counterparts would use the word “must” in their agitation for power shift to the south after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in 2023.
El -Rufai stated that the word “must’’ was at variance with democracy which is characterised by negotiations and horse-trading by parties involved, often out of public glare.
The governor recalled that he and some other northern governors had earlier called for power shift in 2023 in their individual capacities in order to foster national unity and togetherness’.
“I was called names by our people for making that call.’’
El-Rufai, who made the clarifications in a media chat with Kaduna-based broadcast-journalists on Tuesday night, said the media misrepresented the resolution of the Northern Governors’ Forum meeting held on Monday, on power shift.
The governor who spoke in Hausa, reminded that the north has supported southern presidential aspirants in the past. It recalled that it supported Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s aspiration in 1999 and his re-election in 2003.
He said southern governors should have reached out to their northern counterparts on the issue of power shift instead of playing to the gallery.
